Review: True Detective Ep. 02

Bechdel test: Yes
Feminist points: 
Episode: 

It’s weird that throughout the first and second episode they have referred to the killer as he. They’ve never even reflected on that it could be a she or a they. That’s just how good they are!

I guess this is the episode where we’re supposed to get to know Woody Harrelsons character Marty, and figure out that he’s also a complicated character, struggling with his masculinity, just like Rust. It starts with him fondly recalling the time he stopped a woman for a traffic violation and then had sex with her. There, alarm bells starts going off! He continues later in the episode with repeating that he has a mistress to “get his head right”, and that he’s doing it for his daughters and his wife. I’m sure they’re all very grateful. We at least here get the sense that he’s repeating it several times to show the audience that he’s not such a good guy after all, it’s too bad that they just figured out self reflection in episode 2, and only momentarelly.

 

We also get to know his mistress and their relationship, and I must say that I love the style and realism of this critically acclaimed show. It’s so original that it actually casted 28 year-old Alexandra Daddario in the role of Lisa, Woody Harrelson’s (53 years old) mistress. I’m just saying, which 28 year old reporter would not want to hook up with a middle aged, drunken, married father of two?

At the end of the episode he redeems himself by giving some money to a young prostitute, telling her to leave that line of work. So all of a sudden he’s the guardian of right and wrong. We feel your pain Marty!!!

 

And let’s not forget about Rust, it’s not like Rust is just creeping in the shadows this episode. He has his fair share of fun. Like when he doesn’t get the answers he wants from a couple of mechanics, and he walks out to his car and takes his jacket off and walks back in to kick the living crap out of these guys. This scene is shot and edited in a lighthearted fashion so that we understand that he’s the good guy, just doing his duty, and at the same time showing us how tough he is. Yeah, we just can’t get enough of that police brutality, it’s so much fun!

 

Let’s look forward to the next episode where, hopefully, our heroes might kill someone.

 

-D

Review: True Detective Ep. 01

Bechdel test: No, not even close
Feminist points: 
Movie/Episode: 

 

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey play Marty and Rust, two miss matched police officers in the Louisiana homicide department. They immediately get confronted with a murder which is going to haunt them for the next 17 years.

 

The first episode of the popular HBO series starts off with presenting the first female “character” naked, dead and tied to a tree. The 2^nd and 3^rd are prostitutes. The fourth is Marty’s wife Maggie (Michelle Monaghan), who is introduced with a shot of her ass, whilst lying in bed. The only female authoritative figure, Cathleen, who’s the receptionist at the police station (which makes her rank below the male officers), is addressed for the first time with an affectionate joke about the colour of her skin. Oh I almost forgot, Marty’s got a young mistress, of course!

 

There is an apparent lack of women in the small town Louisiana police department (as seen in the picture), but I guess that the reason is to minimize the risk of sexual harassment?
Oh wait, there’s a woman in orange in the back cleaning the floor.

It’s sad to see that this show, which is supposed to be the BEST of the best, have such flat female characters with zero complexity. I just hope that the next episode will present us with less misogyny and more philogyny.

-D